Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

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toddlyons
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Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by toddlyons »

Release Version, r30: Download the Book in PDF or ODT

Print candidate
  • Status: Checked OUT
  • Owner: Solomoriah
  • Task: Print Candidate pass
  • ETA: (be patient)
Any feedback can be provided as Forum comments below.

To-Do?:
  • Table of contents of Level and Class (already done in PDF version; no text page yet)
  • Character Index?
Appreciation and thanks,
Todd
Last edited by toddlyons on Mon Mar 04, 2024 10:24 am, edited 73 times in total.
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Bumblepig
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by Bumblepig »

I've started reading this, and so far really, really like the character descriptions. These are very creative and provide just enough detail to let the GM take the NPC and run with it. Very well done, and a million times more usable than ye old Rogues Guide (though somehow I loved that thing as a kid).
I'd like to help you proofread. But this will take awhile because now I realize it's kinda long. But good long... different classes, organized by levels... perfect!
I'll just look for typos, errors, or places where the meaning isn't clear. I'm not going to bother with nitpicky rewording, because overall I think these descriptions are well written and clear.
I'm not your man for fixing formatting. I'm not a LibreOffice magician.
My biggest suggestion out of the gate: Don't bother with an index! At least along the lines you've started with in the back, with a list of names and page numbers. I don't think anyone would be looking up one of the NPCs by name, I'd think if I were using an NPC I'd just extract/print that particular NPC rather than repeatedly referring to this book. But what you absolutely DO need is Table of contents for each Level and Class. The headers should also show at least Level, maybe class. Making it easier to find an NPC of an appropriate class/level will make a huge difference in usability.
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toddlyons
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by toddlyons »

Bumblepig wrote: Sat Nov 26, 2022 11:24 am My biggest suggestion out of the gate: Don't bother with an index! (....) But what you absolutely DO need is Table of contents for each Level and Class. The headers should also show at least Level, maybe class. Making it easier to find an NPC of an appropriate class/level will make a huge difference in usability.
Thanks Kyle, that actually makes good sense. It'll also have to fall to Chi, Solo, or Al or someone else who can make LibreOffice do tricks, because I'm terrible with it.

I guess my thinking of the name index was for people trying to locate siblings, cousins, and associates in cases where a mini-bio mentions related people. But it might not be used. You're completely correct that the bios are meant to give a quick indicator of what shapes this person's behaviour. Any connecting information to other people and places is optional.

I'm glad the reading is satisfactory. My style is probably not to everyone's taste, but it really flows out that way. I'll start with a word or an idea, and bang. It's kind of freaky where some of the bios went, considering I had no clear plan for some characters until I reached the end of their first sentence... and then that sentence informed the next one. I didn't know who Chrysogon was until I was half-finished the book. Before then, it was just a name I liked the look of.
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by leon »

I like this for the case where the players go off in an unexpected direction, I need NPCs and whatever improv ideas escape me. My players do this to me consciously. Don't tell them the parents of one of the PCs are really Archie and Edith Bunker.

I will find time to give you some feedback on the content.

Regarding indexes, Libre Writer can do this. Use Insert -> Table of Contents and Index -> Table of Contents... . For the table of contents, you must tell it to use MainHeading and Subheading for levels 1 and 2. For the character index, you change the type to Alphabetical Index. And then, you have to go through all of the text and mark each instance of a term by highlighting the name and then doing Insert -> Table of Contents and Index -> Index entry. This part will be annoying and long, but at least you only need to do it once.

I tested each, and they work. However, I could not figure out how to make multiple columns work. I suspect the default tab styles are confusing Writer because each entry is cut off on the right. There are also issues with getting the font right. Probably this can be fixed by making new paragraph styles first. It's beyond my current understanding. I'd like to find a solution, though, because other works would benefit (e.g. Terror in Tosasth).
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Bumblepig
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

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I guess my thinking of the name index was for pe :D ople trying to locate siblings, cousins, and associates in cases where a mini-bio mentions related people. But it might not be used. You're completely correct that the bios are meant to give a quick indicator of what shapes this person's behaviour. Any connecting information to other people and places is optional.

I'm glad the reading is satisfactory. My style is probably not to everyone's taste, but it really flows out that way. I'll start with a word or an idea, and bang. It's kind of freaky where some of the bios went, considering I had no clear plan for some characters until I reached the end of their first sentence... and then that sentence informed the next one. I didn't know who Chrysogon was until I was half-finished the book. Before then, it was just a name I liked the look of.
Actually, I said that before I started seeing references to other NPCs in descriptions. For that, a name index or inline cross references make sense. Sorry, wasn't paying attention.
But I also think you need a TOC.
I'm amazed you were able to come up with this many unique descriptions.
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by toddlyons »

Bumblepig wrote: Sat Nov 26, 2022 2:31 pm I'm amazed you were able to come up with this many unique descriptions.
"Write what you know" is what I was always told. There's a lot of my feelings and experiences in the book spread out in small amounts, along with aspects of people I've known or met over my 50+ years. I sat at a keyboard and let it pour out of me. It took about 120 hours to write.

Some of it is just fun fiction because I needed to snap out of different moods it took me to.

It was pretty cathartic.

Another thing to consider is that 288 unique characters is only difficult if you write about static and disconnected individuals. People forget that a lot of our identity isn't just who we are independently, but what we mean to others. This is why you'll notice patterns in the mini-bios. For example: people who experienced the same things together process and interpret them differently, their memories are unique and reflect their own worldview. Some people visited the same places but had radically different experiences. And some people talk about their lives through their interactions with others. You can only "fully" understand some clusters of people by reading what they've all said about themselves and each other.

And that's part of the appeal of this design. People can trust that they know a character based on the description, or read more into them (if they're connected), or alter them, or just chuck the description in the bin and use the stats. :lol:
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by bscalise »

Wow, this is amazing. I'd love to see this turn into something like the Equipment Emporium as a print release. It could be so useful as a table book.
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by toddlyons »

bscalise wrote: Sat Nov 26, 2022 5:37 pm I'd love to see this turn into something like the Equipment Emporium as a print release. It could be so useful as a table book.
Thanks for saying so; that's my hope as well. It's the book I've been thinking of writing for 40 years. A couple of weeks of quiet "stay-cation" put my mind in the right place, and that was all it took to get it started.
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by leon »

I've run through all of the first level NPCs. Here's my feedback.

Throughout, it may be necessary to tweak the format of each stat block because the style guide calls for the ability scores to be on a separate line. Also, the lead-in is supposed to include the name. For example:
Idril Lorwynn, Elf Cleric 1: AC 18, #At 1, Dam 1d8, Mv 20', Ml 9

STR 11, INT 15 (+1), WIS 17 (+2), DEX 9, CON 12, CHA 7 (-1)

Equipment: Plate Mail, Shield, Mace

HP 5 ☐☐☐☐☐
Generally, it may be interesting for the equipment carried to go beyond armor and weapons.

Page 2, Ash Bronsone uses they until the last sentence which uses her. The BFRPG style guide calls for using traditional pronouns.

Page 3, Arna Bloms would benefit by including a list of the trinkets she carries.

Page 4, Beathan O'Brien, the cup runneth over reference invokes the line from the bible about divine abundance. I think you're trying to say that some people live life to the fullest, other people overindulge, and Beathan continues to ask for more when he's already had too much. I don't follow how "everyone hopes he’s now reached the peak of his personal growth", though.

Magnhild the Mighty is so dumb that he forgot his own name, so he invented a title. That's funny.

Page 5, what are the names of Muireall's parents?

Page 8, Darby Caldwelle, Change "Mom has started telling..." to "His mother has started telling...". And strike "I guess".

Page 8, Canicus Soranus, perhaps replace unimprove with one that appears in the dictionary, such as degenerate.

Page 10 starts the second level NPCs, but the header doesn't change. The way to make this work is to create a new page style for each part of the document. Edit the page break between the two parts and change "with page style" to the new page style you made.
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toddlyons
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Re: Chrysogon's Coterie - 288 NPCs for your Campaign

Post by toddlyons »

Hey Leon. Thanks for the tips. I'll wait for a bunch to come in before pushing out a new revision.

Edit: Done!
Last edited by toddlyons on Mon Nov 28, 2022 12:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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